One of the most important facts one has to bear in mind, is that the nomad tribes of the whole Centralasian region never truly left it, nor did they simply disappear, as written history may seem to suggest. These nomads were the mainstay of horse breeding, to be more exact, of breeding the Turan or Turkmenian horse.

Concrete breeds, as we today understand the term, did not exist. What we had up to roughly 1600 A.C. are local strains or types of horses, based on the earlier Turan horse, which also already encompassed a huge geographic spread of land. Inspite of this large area, Turkmenian horses were uniform in a couple of important factors: they all derived from the Type III of the foundation types, they all were selected by nomadic lifestyle and strictures.

Differences were, for a long time, marginal adaptions to climatic and geographic idiosyncrasies, such as e.g. to rocky underground, areas including more mountains, areas with more or less water supply or areas with different supplies of fodder. Breeding practices as well as usage also saw to it, that differing strains evolved. E.g. some nomads left the horses to breed freely, not caring whether one or another stud sired the foals. Others quite early on placed import on deciding which sires to couple with which mares. Some tribes lived relatively peacefully and placed more weight on the daily interaction with their horses during normal household chores, whereas more bellicose tribes bred for horses better suited to a warrior life.

What we today know as Yamoud or Akhal Teke were formerly local strains called by the name of the nomad tribes breeding them. All horses of this area and type formed what was called Turkoman Horses by outsiders.

The Akhal Teke horse derived its name from one branch of the Teke tribes. They lived a half-nomadic life close to former Nisa, the oasis Akhal at the center of their realm. Through their "Ak Sakal" (= white beards, the keepers of history) they report, that they were able to secure the best stock of the famous massagetian and scythian herds, most of them golden-coloured.

A couple of things point towards the truth of the acquisition. The oriental horse-breeds which continued among the other turkmenian tribes never developed to the same excellence, neither did they have such a large percentage of "golden" coats, nor the same speed and height. No matter how it came to be - in retrospection the Akhal Teke is the most direct and closest descendant of the horses of Turkoman warhorses. From then on the Akhal Teke nomads were the exclusive keepers of the breed, selecting for character, constitution, stamina and speed.

The Akhal Teke were a conglomerate of several sub-tribes, of which that of the Sakar was one of the most aggressive. The sub-tribes hailed to two different "origins", some called themselves "white", others "brown" or "dark", which means that they knew all about their diverse origins and kept the differentiation between white and other scyths. The "white" thought themselves to be nobler and older in ancestrage, they also preferred rather the life of the "un-bound", against the "land-bound", differentiating between the life of full nomads against settled or half-settled tribes. Contrary to popular opinion there was never "the" Akhal Teke horse, each sub-tribe had its own strain/type of the breed slighty differing from the others, in much the same way that the Turkoman horse differed depending on overall tribe.

The hardiest and fastest horses were reported to belong to the sub-tribe of the Sakar. Some of the horses belonging to this tribe within the first studbook still can be identified, as they bore the name in their own name (e.g.Sakar Kitchik, Keshik-Sakar), late in the 19th century a large proportion of the Sakar were forced to leave the turkmenian borders and had to live in exile in what we call today Afghanistan and Iran.

The peoples of the South, the Arabians, appreciated the horses of central asia as well. Arabia was not remarked for its horse-breeding during the graeco-persian wars. Neither Straton (1st century A.C.), nor Vegetius (4th century A.C.) mentioned arabian horses, though they wrote in detail about the horse breeds of other countries. It is proven that Mohammed's army was mounted on camels. There were but few horses, spoils of war themselves. The Koran names the camel, the mule, the donkey of the Prophet, it does not name a horse.

When the arabian warriors invaded the fertile valleys of Central Asia they abducted some of the best and most distinguished tekinian horses. They, along with the persian crossbreed (also called the Persian Arabian, a cross of Akhal Teke and local mountain horses), the Caspian and syrian strains of both Caspian and Teke, founded the Arabian breed.

The saddlehorses of the mohammedanian era bore the characteristica of the Teke, not those of the Arabian horse we know today. One of the first to describe the Arabian Horse is Timotheus of Ghaza, about 600 A.C., and he described a horse much in the mould of the Akhal Teke, even his description of coat-colours detail an astonishing similarity. Horsemen of the period remarked on the mare Sabchach, a golden dun, and the stallion Jel Varel, a palomino, colours absolutely unknown in Arabia, yet wellknown among the horses of Central Asia.

Only gradually the typical Arabian evolved through the differing climate, soil and nutrition, as well as through the arabian preference for a more docile, obsequious character and their tendency to ride mares. Akhal Teke were repeatedly bred to the evolving Arabian, even as late the 16th century and to this day the Mu'niqi Arabian still shows its ancestors in speed and conformation.

Beduin pride would not allow for the Arabian horse to have originated anywhere else but in the land itself. With typical nonchalance the Arabians spun their yarn, maintaining in the face of actual history that the Arabian evolved all by itself in the desert of Nejd, moreover that it was the first oriental horse. Thus the Akhal Teke was denied its first important role in the history of horse-breeding, that which it played by bringing the Arabian horse into existence together with the Caspian and that of being the first oriental or thoroughbred horse ever. Unfortunately this tale of a thousand and one nights is still spread by the breeders of arabian horses and as long as it is not firmly corrected the Akhal Teke will remain in the shadow of a much younger breed. This was but the first time that the Teke was discriminated in relatively modern times.

Akhal Teke warriors and their horses were much sought after mercenaries, breeders and instructors. During the 9th century a turkmenian breeder and instructor lived at the court of the Caliph of Bagdad, where he spread the Akhal Teke as a horse of the palace guard. He left a very detailed description on how an ideal warhorse should look like and this is congruent with what is known about the conformation of pre-1900 Teke.

Under Ghengis Khan and Timurlane Teke mercenaries and their horses served as well as later under the rising osmanic emperors, spreading the Akhal Teke and Yamoud horse far to the west, actually as far as the borders of Vienna.

Today we can safely say that the socalled "turkish horse", "turkmenian" and "arabian", when applied to the early imports of oriental horses of the Centralasian region, all meant horses bred by the various turkoman nomad tribes, or rather especially those bred by the warrior tribes Teke and Yamoud, with a definite edge to the Teke.

The problem with the early importers of oriental horses was that the foreigners buying them had no idea of what they actually got. Many so-called "turkish" horses, which for a long time were thought to be arabian horses, actually were Akhal Teke, as the sultans and nobles in Turkey much preferred the Akhal Teke over the Arabian and their stables and pastures were filled with tekinian horses. Also the so-called "Landesaraber" (= arabian of the country), not born in Arabia itself, more often than not were actually Akhal Teke or Teke partbreds. It is difficult for many to grasp and understand the fact - but the arabian horse was not as famed for excellence in the middle and near orient or Eurasia as in the occident. Famous were the turkish or turkmenian riding horses. 

Thus more than 50% of the oriental stock imported for the General Studbook of the English Thoroughbred were in fact not Arabians, but turkmenian and tekinian horses instead, among those some of the most famous. Contrary to the vague classification in Europe the Akhal Teke themselves kept record of which horses were sold where. Many could also easily be identified by their proper name, their conformation and history of import. Such names and descriptions which exist for horses like "Merw" or "Old Bold Peg", "Byerly Turk", "Darley Arabian" , "Lister Turk", "White Darsi Turk" and "Leeds Arabian" clearly detail Teke or Teke partbreds.

It is also recorded that as late as during the 18th century more than 700 purebred Akhal Teke horses have been bought by the British, the fastest to be shipped to Great Britain for racing purposes. Among the french thoroughbred lines it is the family of Tourbillon which carries a lot of Teke blood. Through its participation in the evolution of the English Thoroughbred the Teke has influenced virtually every horsebreed of this world.

Yet there are instances where this happened just as directly.

The Akhal Teke stallion "Turkmain Atti" (= turkmenian horse) was bought by the stud-farm of Neustadt/Dosse in 1791. He proved to be a far better ameliorator than any of the arabian and english sires and was much-used. Today there is absolutely no Trakehner without at least one blood-line in its pedigree which leads back to Turkmain Atti. Other turkmenian studs in the Trakehner breed were Deliasdehr, Persianer and Djeiran.

In the case of "Djeiran" the story is more than a little ridiculous, he was put to stud in Marbach, where he was thought to be an Arabian! He covered nearly all of their arabian mares and as such hippologists as Heck, Schiele and Flade have pointed out, it stands to reason that it was this horse which has given the Marbach arabian the good foundation and large-framed conformation, as well as its comparatively fluent, reaching gaits. He can be discovered in many pedigrees of european-bred Arabian horses. After his career in Marbach he was sold to Neustadt/Dosse and continued to breed Trakehner horses, again thought to be an arabian.

There also were those countless turkish horses left over from the turkish-austrian war, which more often than not were turkmenian of origin. They were used as sires and broodmares all over Europe, thus - in all reality their is virtually no european breed not influenced by the Akhal Teke and through his offspring Arabian and English Thoroughbred his influence has become colossal.